xanithofdragons | Entries tagged with music

So back on Wednesday I got my copies of Jipangu Ookini Daisakusen/Yume wo Dakishimete! (lol why are both of the titles long) All 4 versions, with all four clear files.

With Jipangu Ookini Daisakusen, it's like the managed to make a song and music video that's even more Kansai than the previous heavily-Kansai-themed songs. xD At one point I imagined what a Konamon music video would look like, and I figure it'd look a lot like the CG portions of Jipangu Ookini Daisakusen. xD I like Yume wo Dakishimete. Everyone's so well dressed in the music video and everyone looks really cool and hot. ^///^ Also, I like that they put a hat on Kotaki for the video. Kotaki really rocked that hat. But, lol, did someone take inspiration from FIRE BEAT with those fire scenes? It was done well but I immediately thought of FIRE BEAT.

SUPERSTAR may be my favorite song from this single. At least, it's the one I want to listen to over and over again. ^^ The lyrics really fit the story of Again!! (never mind that I've only gotten around to watching like 2 episodes of it) and I always want to sing along with the chorus. for now and forever is a nice cheerful and happy song, though when they performed it on Shokura last week, it didn't leave that strong of an impression. I think because it sounded like they weren't at all used to singing it live. Certain parts of WESTERN PARADE sounded... weird to me... Like they had put the backing vocals too loud and it didn't sound like Johnny's WEST anymore? It's not bad, but... weird. I like Can't stop okay, but it didn't stand out to me compared to the rest of the songs on the single. But, with both Yume wo Dakishimete and Can't stop on this single, and then Criminal from their album... why are all of Johnny's WEST's love songs about unhealthy relationships and/or obsessive love? xD I mean, I know that sort of thing is more entertaining but still. ^^;

Overall, with the range of songs on this single, it sounds like they're trying a good variety of different styles of music.

A major thing I noticed throughout both the makings and just in whatever Johnny's WEST does, is how much they are all over each other. xD They're always casually putting their arms over each other's shoulders or hugging each other out of nowhere. That and how comfortable they are teasing each other (especially Kotaki's "you're my senpai but I'm totally going to mess with you anyway" thing he's been doing ^^) and how easily they play off of each other just makes me so happy to watch them and be a fan. They seem so close and so happy with each other. It's really exactly the kind of group I like. ♥

I got Johnny's WEST's first album the week it came out and all and wanted to make a post about it but kept not making the post. But I still really want to post about the album because it's great. So this is a go WEST Yo-i Don! post.

First pictures:
( Cut for pictures )

Second song by song impressions (only covering songs first released on this album):
( long orz )

Last the DVD:
They were the same way in the making video of Ee Ja Nai ka, but I love how much it shows how new and exciting all of this is to them. ♥ And again I constantly get the sense that they're all really close and really comfortable around each other. Ah~ this is why I love making/behind-the-scenes stuff. ♥

Somehow I thought Hama-chan was the cutest throughout. xD Things like not knowing what to do in recording or messing up the title of his favorite song. ^^ Hama-chan's great... and recently it feels like his movements are twice as big as everyone else's when they're performing, so I just end up noticing him and watching him a lot. Akito's still my favorite, though, but Johnny's WEST is very much a group where I like all the members for one thing or another (which is what I like in my groups!).

It's so funny that they only found out what they debut song would be part-way through the shoot for the jacket covers. ^^; But after they found out what the song would be, I don't know if he was joking or serious, but Shige said something like that he thought the debut song would be Konamon and I started thinking about what a Konamon music video wold be like. xD I'm pretty sure it would have be amazing.

The Banzai Yume Mansai video is really pretty and really cool although it was a little hard to follow the vague story they sort of had in the video. ^^ They're really putting a lot of work and effort (and probably money) into Johnny's WEST's music videos so far. It's only the first two videos, still, but they're both really good.

I don't know about them including a dance video for Ee Ja Nai ka, but I guess it'll be useful for anyone who wants to learn the whole dance? ~~although they're not dancing for some parts whatever~~

Since we're about half-way through the year now, I thought I'd take a look back at the list of ~~fandom~~ Johnny's-related things I hoped would happen this year (see here) and see how things have turned out at the half-way mark.

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Speaking of A.B.C-Z no Ienai yo, that reminds me of an interesting list I found in the July issue of Popolo. There was a whole big section about Johnny's variety shows, including reader rankings, and one of the rankings was "Variety shows you want to see again". The rank was as follows (I'm not familiar with all of these shows, so sorry if I romanize something weird):
1. You Konto Shichainayo
2. Kiss My Fake
3. Gakkou e Ikou
4. Kanpani
5. Arashi no Shukudai-kun
6. Yanyan JUMP
7. Himitsu no Arashi-chan
8. A.B.C-Z no Ienai yo
9. 8ji da J
10. Soukon

I am pretty glad other fans liked A.B.C-Z no Ienai yo enough to list it here. I am also not at all surprised at You Konto Shichainayo making it. I really hope they make it a yearly or semiannual thing! There's a lot of really popular older Johnny's shows on the list too. ♥ The only one I don't get is Kiss My Fake being on there, especially in the #2 spot, since I found that show so boring I stopped watching after a few episodes, but there are a lot of Kisumai fans, and a lot of Kisumai fans would be regular Popolo readers, so *shrugs*.

I got my copies of GUTS! on Friday. ^^

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Today was a very good day because I had the day off from work and because Ee Ja Nai ka came in the mail today!

( Cut for lots of pictures... And spoilers? )

tl;dr I love the Ee Ja Nai ka single in all its versions.

Current Mood: happy

That thing where I get packages two days in a row even though they were shipped a week apart? It happened again! lolololol international shipping!

Package #1:
( Power of Wind )
Fudanjuku's new album and some idol magazines! I wish I could afford to buy idol magazines more often than I do. >_<
I really like Fudanjuku's new album. I like all of the single songs. I really dig the direction they've been going in with songs like Dansou Revolution and Chenmen Paradise, and Shita wo Muite Kaerou and Jinsei Wahaha! have such nice lyrics. ♥ And I hadn't noticed how cool the lyrics for Shita wo Muite Kaerou were until I listened to it on the album while reading the lyric booklet. Oh yeah! That's my only complaint about it! The pink text is really hard to read against the gray-scale backgrounds! xD I really like the album songs too, especially EYE OF THE TYPHOON and Karafuru Purantan. Karafuru Purantan is more the kind of song you'd expect from female idol groups and it's super cute. ♥ (But it's also a sub-unit song).

I am such a sucker for idol music. xD

Package #2:
( 神！ COME ON! 神！ COMING! )
Kisumai's single collection...
IDK. The graphics are kind of cute? Their outfits are pretty nice too... But when I put it into my computer to listen, I skipped straight to Kis-My-Calling and didn't even bother listening to anything else. I mean, I've heard all those songs... I bought those singles. All of them. Ugh, it's still a total mystery to me why they released this. AVEX!!! *Waves fist* But there is Kis-My-Calling and that is all that matters to me. The part where they each say their letters and their names sounds a little awkward, but I guess that's to be expected when they're each doing what's supposed to be a call-and-response alone. Some of Tama's lines sounded a bit weird too ~~but I think like half of Tama's solo lines sound weird recently, SO...~~ but I think it's because before he was always kind of... yell-singing his lines so to speak, and in this he doesn't put enough force behind it and it sounds more like him just straight singing it. I had seen a comment or two on twitter commenting on the CD version being different from previous live performances of it, but really, it's no more different than I'd expect a studio version and a live version to be. Though, somehow the intro for Kis-My-Calling and the intro to the Kansai Jr. song Ume Gouin On sound similar to me. Does anyone else hear it?

And that finishes the March releases I bought. At least one every week... some of which I enjoyed more than others. >_> April brings with it only two new releases for me: Johnny's WEST's debut single Ee Ja Nai Ka and Arashi's new single GUTS! I wonder when Arashi will release new live DVDs...

I've been a bit busy to make a post about it, but I got my copies of Ebi's album on Thursday! I was really exciting about receiving packages in the mail two days in the row. It's kind of funny to see how different the travel times can be for items shipped through the same service though. ^^;

( Pictures )

I'm really happy with this album. It was getting late at night and I was tired during my first listen, but I kept thinking that I had to get to the second disc and listen to STAR SEEKER, and STAR SEEKER is amazing (even if I think the lyricist for it shouldn't be allowed to write English lyrics anymore). My favorite Ebi performance is their STAR SEEKER performance from Summary 2012, and the album version is pretty much that version of the song but with more parts to it. It's kind of funny to think that other times they've performed that song, they've pretty much only performed half of it. xD But all of the songs that hadn't been previously released on the bonus CDs with their DVD singles were really nice. I also especially liked HIGHER!FLY! because it's a really cool song yet I feel like I've never actually heard the full version before? Although I guess that's not uncommon when it probably mostly gets shoved into medleys...

That's part of why it's so great that Ebi finally released a CD album because although part of the appeal of doing DVD singles is to put the performance together with the song and sometimes there are parts of the song that don't totally make sense unless you see the performances, there are also times when hearing the full studio version makes you appreciate the songs even more. So I'm really glad Ebi released a CD and challenged only performing the music. ^^

I also like the bonus songs for the regular edition, especially 5 Rings. It's a pretty powerful song. And the DVD with the 5stars version was really fun to watch. I just watched it tonight, putting it in and thinking "Oh, it'll probably be about an hour..." No. Over two hours. ^^; Ebi can just talk forever. xD I loved how the staff couldn't hold back their laughter during Tsukada's interview and how the Ebi members wrote letters/questions to each other. They all looked so cute during the jacket making too. I also felt like I learned a bunch about their songs and history in the NogiMitsu part of the DVD.

Last weekend I bought an (imitation) leather jacket!

( clothes )

I got TWO very exciting packages today!
#1: My Kisumai and Ebi calendars!
( calendars )

#2 Kisumai single and androp album!
( CDs )

All in all, today was a pretty exciting day. ^_^

I really like having mail to look forward to. ^^

( Cut for images )

I also got my certificate for passing the N1 of the JLPT last week! I don't think I mentioned passing it before on LJ, but I did, somehow. Even after looking at the results online, I half-wondered if it was some kind of mistake and I didn't actual pass, but I have the certificate now and the official paper report.

Another big thing this week is, with the release of the Johnny's calendars, getting contact from CDJapan that they need to upgrade shipping for my order of Kisumai and Ebi's calendars (presumably because Kisumai's calendar is HUGE). >_< The shipping was just way more than I was willing to pay, so I decided to let the order be canceled and order through YesAsia instead, because even with YA's high-ish prices for the calendars, it's still less than paying for EMS shipping. But I'm a little worried because YA listed the availability for Ebi's calendar as "ships within 21 days" and I now have experience of YA's availability being... weird... sometimes. Let's just hope this all goes well and I can get both the calendars I want.

Current Mood: nervous

There are just some months that have more Jpop releases than others, or at least some months that have more releases from groups I follow. March is one of those months:
March 5th: Kisumai's new single Hikari no Signal and androp's new album period
March 12th: Ebi's new album From ABC to Z
March 19th: Fudanjuku's new album Power of Wind
March 26th: ~~Avex's sudden attempt to make lots of money fast~~ Kisumai's single collection

That's right, every single week. What's more, an album, every single week. And the Johnny's calendars come out this month, too... So look forward to a lot of posts about new releases from me this month (and going into next month). ^^; This is why I'm so bad at saving money. orz

I got a couple DVDs and a CD in on Friday.

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I'd been thinking for a while that I wanted to buy one of A.B.C-Z's live DVDs and it was great! I haven't watched the tour documentary yet, but I was really impressed with their production. Also, I wasn't expecting all of them to do solos, so I was really happy to see all of them do solo performances too. Their communication with the fans also seemed so good!

I've also been thinking a while about getting Kisumai's earlier DVDs, too. The MINT DVD was the first Kisumai DVD I bought, so I'd been wondering about getting the Aeru de Show and debut concert DVDs too. I decided to get Aeru de Show first because it's pre-debut and it has Kis-My-Calling. It has Kis-My-Calling three times and everytime is beautiful. Live DVDs really are the best, though. They just all looked so so happy to be there and performing. I came really close to crying while they sang "Smile". It's such a pretty song, and they all looked so happy and were out amongst the fans.　And, it's somehow amazing that the moment Kisumai found out they were going to debut is recorded on DVD like that. As a side note, I feel like I've gotten to a point where I'm at peace with Kisumai for now. ^_^

And the Eito best album... I don't know, I wanted to buy something else and I wanted this? I really like Kuruton. Even though I bought a limited edition, I haven't started watching the DVD yet at all. ^^; Next I should buy a NEWS album when I want to add something to an order and feel like buying something else I've been wanting for a while. xD I really like a lot of NEWS' songs.

Current Mood: happy

Last week, I got three packages of Jpop stuff because I ended up ordering four releases from the previous week over three orders. orz I already posted about package # 1 here

Package #2
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I got my OMG DVD, Never My Love DVD, and Sakanaction album in the mail yesterday!

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I'm really glad it came on Monday. With my work schedule today and tomorrow, I wasn't sure when I'd be able to find a good time to sit down and watch through the OMG DVD if it came Tuesday or Wednesday. I watched all of it except for the multi-angles last night. Watching live DVDs is always such a great experience. If I were to recommend to a Johnnys fan the one type of goods that's most worth buying, I'd probably say live DVDs. You get the music, the member interaction, the performances. It's the best parts of Johnnys.

The Never My Love music video was really cute and had a nice story, but the shaky camera made it a little hard to watch at parts. >_< I know the camera person is running around a castle with A.B.C-Z, but I still can't stand a constantly shaking camera. The Like A Blow video was really cool! I still think it's really cute they named the limited editions "version A" and "version Z". Ebi, you are so adorable. But it is a little frustrating that there are two versions with different bonus CDs. I understand that they put different content on each version to try to get you to buy all the versions, but I still can't convince myself to buy multiple versions of a DVD... I still really really really keep hoping they'll release an actual album one of these days. They've done 5 of these singles already!

I haven't listened to the Sakanaction album yet, but I'm hoping to listen to it all today. ^_^

Hello new friends from the Johnny's friending meme! It's nice to meet you all. ^_^ I never really know what to write for intro posts, so I'll try to cover some information that I think is important about me, do something I've been thinking about doing for a little while, and then open the floor to questions.

I recently graduated from college with a BA in Japanese Language and Culture and am currently working part-time as a bakery clerk in a grocery store. The kind of job I want to do in the future is pretty much anything where I can use Japanese in my work, maybe as a translator or an interpreter or just someone who works in a company that does business in both Japan and America or other English speaking countries and occasionally has reason to use her bilingual skills.

I studied abroad in Japan my junior year of college and left my heart in Japan, in that I fell even more in love with Japan. I want more than anything to have a reason to go back in Japan and live there at least another year. I'm applying to the JET program and maybe to one or two similar programs. As for my Japanese fluency, I passed the N2 of the JLPT and am going to take the N1 this year ~~and haven't studied nearly enough yet~~.

I think that's pretty good as an introduction of where I am right now in my life. The other thing I want to do in this post is a list of how many Johnnys singles, albums, and DVDs I have, by group and then total. ^^ When I have multiple versions I'll include a count not including multiple versions of the same release.

( Cut for the count )

And that's just for Johnny's groups... And just the current count... xD I have other Jpop CDs, too, but not quite as many. ^^;

And lastly, I'll open the floor for questions. My introduction may have left out a lot of things you'd like to know, so ask me about what you want to hear about. Ask me any questions and as many questions as you like. New friends, friends who've been here longer. If I get enough questions, I'll make another post answering them. ~~If I don't get many, I might just answer them in comments~~. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) my favorite x, how I got into x hobby or activity, what other hobbies I have, personal questions, stories from Japan (do not expect me to be a good story-teller), whatever you can think of. If it's something really personal, I might post about it in a locked post, but I definitely want to know what you all want to know about me.

My copy of LOVE came in the mail yesterday. \(^_^)/ Just looking at the box for it and the booklet, I thought a little that the le would have been worth it even without the bonus dvd (but I still want the bonus dvd, yes, please keep doing that).

( cut because I discuss each new album song )

A problem I've been having recently with listening to Jpop is that the lyrics become a huge part of my experience of the songs, and then that becomes hard to express to friends and family who don't know Japanese.

Some CDs I ordered arrived yesterday. I didn't post yesterday because it was late by the time I finished listening to them. ^^;

( Cut for picture and me having a lot of things to say about Perfume )

Up until now, Game has been my favorite Perfume album. I liked the overall sound and feel of it and liked each of the songs in Game. Triangle and JPN kind of had their ups and downs. There were some songs I really liked and some that didn't do much for me. For JPN, I really liked the single songs for it, but I felt like the album songs were a little lacking. Then, with Love the World and its Nakata-is-lazy remixes, I was a little concerned about whether he would do something like that again, but I think the remixes of single songs on LEVEL 3 really worked. I really love all of the new songs for this album, too. Overall, I think LEVEL 3 is really solid. I think it could become my favorite Perfume album.

It's been a while since I last posted, over a month already. I have a lot less free time because of work, but there's also a limited set of things I feel like doing when I have time off.

Work started out a little rough, but I'm starting to get more comfortable in the job. My coworkers are pretty fun and friendly for the most part, so that probably helped settling in. There's still a lot of things I don't know about the job yet though, and I have trouble answering customers' questions without asking for help from someone else. >_< There's some pretty funny things too. There was one customer who made a Star Trek: TNG reference out of nowhwere. For some products, but especially for pies, since many of them look similar, people'll write on the baking sheet which one it is, and on one pie sheet, one of the pies was marked "Rupaul". It was a strawberry rhubarb pie. xD

With Arashi announcing their next album (I have a limited edition preordered ^_^) and the Arashi ni Shiyagare renewal and then hearing about Arafes going on and watching news clips about it, I'm in an Arashi mood more lately. Also, watching A.B.Chan-Zoo reminded me of Mago Mago Arashi, so I've been watching some episodes I've had sitting around unwatched for a while. ^^;

It's been a while since I last did one, but here have a random video of the post. ^^

I haven't been translating as much as I thought I would recently, but I have a looong translation to post today. I have another long translation I'm close to done with that I'll hopefully be able to post within the next couple of weeks, and then there's a shorter translation or two I want to do. After that, I'm not sure what to translate, so I'm open to requests again.

Today, I'm posting a translation of the Kisumai Calendar for 2013/4-2014/3. I think of it as 3 parts: in the main calendar, each member told about his goals for the year, in the inside cover of Kis-My-Bible each member wrote encouraging messages, and (the bulk of it) in Kis-My-Bible each member answered a questionnaire. The questions range from things like their favorite colors, movies, songs to things like their ideal date or what type of girl they like to things like what they'd do on the last day of the world or what they'd want to be reborn as. I think each member's personality comes out really strongly in these questionnaires.

Notes at the bottom. I've also included links on YT for the non-Johnnys songs they've mentioned.

( Goals for 2013 )

Please credit and link back to this post if reposting. Questions and comments are welcome.

My copies of V6's Oh! My! Goodness! and Arashi's Popcorn DVD came in the mail on Monday! \(^_^)/

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I don't feel like I'm very different between online and offline. I guess the biggest difference is the type of things I talk about online? But that's more a matter of them being things I'm comfortable talking about only with other people who I know are okay with those types of topics. Like, I'm okay talking about fandom and BL and stuff on LJ because I seek out people with the same fandoms and people who like slash and things like that on LJ. I'm also okay talking about them with people offline who I know have the same interests.

But I'm just as shy online as I am offline. I don't tend to talk much or even if I have something I want to say, the conversation will move on before I've said it, but online there's time to sit and write thoughts out. So I guess another major difference is just the difference between speaking and writing. It still takes me a long time to reply to things though, so I'm sorry if that's bothered anyone. T_T But whether online or offline I'm shy and bad at making the first or even second contact with people.

Recently I've been interested in trying to make friends with Japanese Johnnys fans on twitter, but even when I find some who seem interesting, I never get around to trying to contact them or follow them. ^^; I'd noticed a little that on breaks from school I'd get lonely after a while and want to interact with people online more. And it's rare to find Johnnys fans in America at any time, so I want to find more Johnnys fans to talk with. Even when I was still in school I felt that way.

Maybe it well be easier once I've found work and have more opportunities to interact with people again. But the job search is going as slow as ever. :/ I did get a call from one of the recruiters I've spoken with before who wanted to forward my resume to a company, so I'll see if anything happens with that. I'm starting to think that if I want to do part-time or temporary/seasonal work, retail may be the way to go, since I have too limited work experience to fill the requirements for much. T_T

Recently I've been listening to BABYMETAL a lot. here's their new video. ^^